The convicted child abuser Rolf Harris, whose career as one of the most recognisable performers on British TV ended in disgrace after he was found guilty of the indecent assault of teenage girls, has died aged 93.
A registrar at Maidenhead town hall, close to Harris’s family home in the Berkshire village of Bray in the UK, confirmed that the former entertainer died on 10 May of neck cancer and “frailty of old age”.
Harris’s family lawyer said: “This is to confirm that Rolf Harris recently died peacefully surrounded by family and friends and has now been laid to rest. They ask that you respect their privacy. No further comment will be made.”
In October 2022, it was reported that Harris had neck cancer and speculation over his health had built in recent weeks.
Although the Australian-born former entertainer died on 10 May, his ostracism from the industry and isolation from wider society meant he did not have an agent who could confirm rumours of his demise and that led to reporters and photographers standing outside the Harris family house in recent weeks. Windsor and Maidenhead council confirmed that his death was officially registered on Tuesday morning, with the certificate suggesting he would be cremated.
He is survived by his daughter, Bindi Harris, and his wife, Alwen Hughes, who has had Alzheimer’s for many years.
On Tuesday, one of his alleged victims, Karen Gardner – who told the ITVX documentary Rolf Harris: Hiding in Plain Sight that Harris assaulted her when she was 16 in 1978 – pinned a tweet written a few days ago that said: “Very few of us escape the impact of evil people. What we have to do is expose them, share & stand together to dilute the pain. For me it was #rolfharris but he inflicted much worse on other girls.”
A household name from the 1960s onwards, Harris’s reputation as an entertainer and artist was shattered when he was arrested as part of Operation Yewtree, launched in the wake of the Jimmy Savile sexual abuse scandal.
Aged 84, he was sentenced to five years and nine months in jail in 2014 for 12 indecent assaults on four young women and girls between 1968 and 1986 (one conviction was later quashed). Sentencing Harris, Mr Justice Sweeney said: “Your reputation now lies in ruins. you have been stripped of your honours, but you have no one to blame but yourself.”
The court heard how he abused a former friend of his daughter from the age of 13 until she was in her late 20s. His abuse left her profoundly traumatised and she struggled with alcohol, work and relationships as a result. In a statement she said the abuse left her feeling “dirty, grubby and disgusting”. She wrote: “I have never had a meaningful relationship whilst sober. I have also never been able to hold down a job. Rolf Harris had a hold over me that made me a quivering wreck. He made me feel like a sexual object.”
In a second trial in February 2017 he faced a further seven charges. He was cleared of three, while the jury failed to reach a verdict on four others. In May 2017 Harris was released from jail after serving less than three years of his sentence. The same month he was formally found not guilty of all four charges of indecent assault, after a second trial jury at Southwark crown court was unable to reach verdicts.
Until Harris’s arrest, he had enjoyed a successful career in Britain since arriving from Australia in 1952. He made his first appearance on the BBC the following year, and rose to popularity with his own shows for children and adults from the late 1960s, including The Rolf Harris Show and Rolf’s Cartoon Club. He received an MBE in 1968, an OBE in 1977 and a CBE in 2006. In 2012, a year before his arrest, he was made an Officer of the Order of Australia.
Harris also released 30 studio albums and found success with novelty songs such as Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport, Two Little Boys and a cover of Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven. He appeared at the Glastonbury festival several times.
Thanks to his TV work, he became one of Britain’s best-known artists, and in 2005 he was commissioned to paint an official portrait of the Queen. Following his conviction, Harris had Australian honours taken away and his 2012 Bafta fellowship removed and was stripped of his CBE.
Harris never publicly expressed regret for his crimes. In a statement made in the private investigator William Merritt’s book Rolf Harris: The Defence Team’s Special Investigator Reveals the Truth Behind the Trials, Harris said he had been the victim of “injustice”.
In the recently released ITVX documentary, his former promoter Chris Brosnan, known as Bear, revealed that Harris had written him a letter from jail in which he described his “inner rage” and the lyrics of a song detailing “all the injustice” he said he had experienced.
• Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222 in England and Wales, 0808 801 0302 in Scotland, or 0800 0246 991 in Northern Ireland. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673.
